Random: Monster Mania 17

Monster Mania 17 was a blast!  We made the four hour trek down to South Jersey/Philly, expecting to take a day trip to Philly at some point.  I don't know how we would have had any time for that since we were having such an awesome time.

You can check out the full list of guests here but we were most excited about meeting Kane Hodder, Allan Hyde, the Children of the Corn cast, and the Walking Dead peeps.  There was a Children of the Corn panel where we saw John Franklin (Isaac) and Courtney Gains (Malachy)

John Franklin brought his original Children of the Corn jacket from the 80s, and even screamed "you morons" like he did from the cross.  Courtney Gains on the other hand, refused to yell "outlander" and was generally a large douche when we saw him later at the bar.

On the opposite end of the awesome spectrum was the cast of The Walking Dead.  Norman Reedus, Steven Yuen, Jon Bernthal, and Laurie Holden all showed up for autographs and a panel.  They always came out to the bar after, and a few people even came up to a room party on Saturday night.  They were very fun and down to earth.

I don't have a picture of me with him, but Allan Hyde (Godric from True Blood) was also so nice.  We saw him at the bar, and room party later and he was always so nice.  Looks nothing like he does on the show though.

By far, my favorite person to meet was Kane Hodder.  There's a reason he's a fan favorite.  Not only will he chat with you when signing autographs, but would wave when you saw him out and about, and even chatted with us at the gym.  I have a hilarious video of him I'll post later.  He was super-excited that I saw Hatchet 2 unrated in the theaters and was genuinely surprised that I saw BTK and Ed Gein.

We saw Nick Castle, who played the original Michael Myers, and was completely uninterested in talking about it.  He's directed numerous movies since then, and wearing the mask was only the highlight of his career in the mind of horror fans.

The Monsters panel was my favorite event of the weekend.  It featured R.A. Mihailoff (Leatherface), Allan Hyde (Godric), Kane Hodder (Jason), Doug Bradley (Pinhead), and John Amplas (Martin).  They had a hilarious banter, including Kane Hodder saying "Face it, Pinhead is a bitch."

 
The whole weekend was such a great time.  We saw so many cool vendors and met so many really fun people.  I'll definitely be attending another Monster Mania.

Postscript: Rumor is that Ace Frehley was such a gigantic asshole that they canceled his Q&A and pretty much wanted him out of there as soon as possible.